But it wasn’t a 76-yard touchdown. It was a 75-yard gain, then a Reese fumble - he extended the ball as he approached the goal line - out of the end zone for a touchback that gave the Warriors possession.
Westwood proceeded to march 80 yards for a touchdown and a 17-10 lead of its own, and the third of Princeton Collins’ three TDs helped the Warriors hold off the Wildcats in the final quarter for a 27-17 victory Friday night at Round Rock ISD Athletic Complex.
After watching his team suffer its third consecutive loss and drop to 1-3 entering District 13-5A competition next week, Temple coach Bryce Monsen didn’t want to pin this defeat on Reese’s fumble - or even declare that it was the correct call.
“I don’t know exactly what happened . . . I really don’t know,” Monsen said. “I didn’t see (the replays on the big video scoreboard). I was talking to the officials because they were 30 yards behind the play.”
Asked whether Reese made a mistake by holding the ball out with two hands rather than keeping it tucked, Monsen simply said, “He knows.”
That play didn’t necessarily decide the game, because Temple sophomore running back Lache Seastrunk scored a 14-yard touchdown on the second snap of the fourth quarter to slice the Wildcats’ deficit to 20-17.
Only after Collins ran for a 4-yard score on Westwood’s ensuing drive and the Warriors (2-1) recovered a fumbled snap on Temple’s next possession did the Wildcats’ hopes of a comeback win fade away.
However, Westwood coach Anthony Wood clearly thought that Reese’s touchdown-turned-fumble made the difference.
“It was the game-changing play - it was pivotal,” said Wood, who added that the replay indicated that Reese was “celebrating” as he coasted to the goal line. “It’s a killer for their defense to have to go back out there after that happened.”
Seastrunk and senior fullback Adrian Reaves-Brown rushed for 93 yards apiece, and Moore passed for a season-best 128 yards. Seastrunk, who carried the ball only eight times, scored a 45-yard touchdown run 2˝ minutes into the game to give Temple a 7-0 lead.
In fact, the Wildcats didn’t trail until the 1-yard run by sophomore running back Collins (22 carries for 140 yards) that followed Reese’s third-quarter fumble.
“That’s the story of our life right now - we’re playing well enough to be right there with a chance to win the game, but we’re not playing well enough to finish the game and win,” said Monsen, whose squad has lost its last three games - to Round Rock McNeil, Abilene Cooper and Westwood - by a combined 22 points.
“But Westwood does a great job. They were 9-3 last year and have a lot of kids back, and with the way they played on offense we just couldn’t get our defense off the field.”
Westwood junior Tyler Grabarkewitz completed 23 of 42 passes for 295 yards, including a 51-yard shovel pass to Collins that went for a touchdown and answered Seastrunk’s first score. The Warriors’ spread offense racked up 478 yards, and Temple’s defense didn’t force a turnover after producing 13 takeaways in the Wildcats’ first three games.
“We tried to take care of playing Westwood football and do what we could,” Wood said. “We knew we couldn’t run outside on Temple, so we ran right at them and Princeton ran hard.”
Seastrunk got the scoring started less than three minutes in when he juked a defender on a run to the right and burned down the sideline for a 45-yard TD.
After Westwood responded with the 51-yard catch-and-run TD by Collins, the teams traded field goals for a 10-10 halftime deadlock.
Seastrunk’s 77-yard scoring sprint 3˝ minutes into the third quarter was negated by a penalty, and on the next play Reese made his long catch but fumbled the ball near the goal line and couldn’t fall on it before it crossed the end zone’s back line.
Late in the third Seastrunk raced to the right pylon for his 14-yard score to cut Westwood’s lead to 20-17, but the final Collins TD and Temple’s lost fumble with five minutes left sealed the outcome.
Temple will begin 13-5A play by hosting Bryan (2-2) - a 30-27 winner against No. 9-ranked DeSoto - at 7:30 p.m. next Friday at Wildcat Stadium.
“It’s a new season,” Monsen said. “We’ll come back.”
gwille@temple-telegram.com
